Manage a Giving Circle

Once your giving circle is starting to take shape and you have a basic idea of how your circle will function, the next steps are to determine how your giving circle will make grants, educate members, and evaluate it’s impact. You may also decide to build an endowment and want to garner media attention for your giving circle.

Explore below for resources to assist you with all of these activities.

 

In This Area

  • Giving Circles: Recruit Members
    Ideas for recruiting members to your giving circle and sample recruitment documents from established circles.
  • Giving Circles: Educate Members and Engage Community
    How-to documents for engaging and educating your members about philanthropy and your community and how to make that process fun.
  • Giving Circles: Market and Promote
    Step-by-step instructions to get the story of your circle in the media, which can attract and recruit new members, build awareness of your circle and develop community trust.
  • Giving Circles: Make Grants
    How-to resources and sample documents on all aspects of making grants: identifying organizations to fund, requesting proposals, and developing relationships with grantees.
  • Giving Circles: Assess Grantees
    Best practices and sample documents for figuring out which grantees to fund, including how to conduct a site visit. Includes information on grantee reporting requirements.
  • Giving Circles: Create Endowment
    Questions and considerations for determining whether or not to create an endowment. Also includes tips and tools for building an endowment.
  • Giving Circles: Evaluate Circle
    Tools and tips for determining if your members are satisfied with their participation in the circle and if the grants and other work your circle does has the intended impact in the community.